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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Sara Ann Plourde makes pitch for Canada

Sara Plourde of Team Canada in action during a practice session before The Scotia Bank Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship at Softball City in Surrey, BC., July 16, 2013.

Photograph by: Nick Procaylo
, PNG

METRO VANCOUVER - Sara Ann Plourde is about as apple pie-American as you can get.

Born and grew up in Bristol, Conn., famously home to ESPN, the American pop culture phenomenon that helped create today’s sports narcissism. A highly recruited high school softball star, she spent four seasons at the University of Massachusetts and will coach next season at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.

But here she is at Softball City in South Surrey this week, clad not in the red-white-and-blue of Team USA, but in the red-and-white of Team Canada.

Yes, Softball Canada, with an outfield assist from quasi-Canuck Caitlin Lever, has unearthed another one.

Plourde, whose mother was born in Fredericton, N.B., and who left UMass after 2012 as the eighth all-time strikeout leader in NCAA Division I, is throwing nearly 70 mile-an-hour rise balls and teaming with veteran changeup specialist Jenna Caira of Toronto to give Canada a dynamite pair of aces.

She says teammates and best friends from back home jokingly “give me a hard time” about joining the Canadians, “but they’re all supportive.”

Asked this week, just before the start of the Canadian Open Fastpitch international tournament, if she knows the words to the national anthem, the delightfully personable Plourde laughs and says: “I’m learning them. I know the beginning. It goes ‘O Canada.’”

On Wednesday night, she threw the final two innings of Canada’s 3-0 win over Australia, striking out the side in the sixth and getting the final out of the seventh on a strike-out with two runners on base.

Plourde certainly knew of her Canadian ties. She visits her “ton of relatives” in New Brunswick every couple of years.

But it wasn’t until she played with Carolina in the National Pro Fastpitch league last summer with long-time Canadian national team centre fielder Lever, the Buffalo-born daughter of ex-Vancouver Canuck Don Lever, that she realized playing for the national team was a possibility.

“Through conversations, she was like ‘Wait, you are Canadian?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, why?’ And she goes ‘Why did you never tell me that?’

“I was like, ‘Well, I guess I’ll tryout now that I know it’s a possibility.’”

Plourde’s parents, Lisa and Robin, who was born in Maine, did broach the idea the once a few years back, but the pitcher just didn’t think it was an option – “which really upsets me now” -- and was also busy with summer travelling teams and other sports.

After obtaining her Canadian citizenship, the tryout was a mere formality. It was pretty obvious Plourde, 23, had the right stuff.

The five-foot-nine right hander went 109-35 with a 1.47 ERA in four seasons at UMass, with 14 no-hitters and 1,662 strikeouts. She led the nation in Ks in 2010 (556), 2011 (498) and 2012 (541). And after just 43 at-bats in her first three years, she became a force at the plate as a senior, hitting .298 with 11 home runs and 32 RBI.

Canadian head coach Mark Smith paid her the ultimate compliment in saying Plourde has a little bit of Danielle Lawrie in her in terms of her attitude and mechanics.

Lawrie, a Langley native, was a two-time NCAA Player of the Year at the University of Washington and the ace who led Canada to a bronze medal at the world championships in 2010.

Told about the comparison, Plourde lets out a big laugh. “Oh, that’s funny. I take that as a real compliment. She’s a bulldog, a fighter. She’s tough.”

Plourde recalls an NCAA Regional Final in Amherst, Mass., in 2009, her freshman season, between UMass and Lawrie’s Huskies. It went 15 innings, before Washington won it 6-1 with a five-run outburst in the top of the 15th. Lawrie pitched the entire game, striking out 24.

“She’s just a little bit good,” Plourde said with a wry smile. “That was a crazy game, I’ll never forget it. I wasn’t even playing, but I felt like I was. She went all 15 and so did our pitcher (senior Brandice Balschmiter). They battled so hard.”

Plourde pulled on the Canada jersey for the first time last week at the World Cup in Oklahoma.

“It felt pretty good. My mom goes ‘You better send me a picture the second you put that Canadian jersey on.’ Yeah, it felt cool to put it on, just to play for a country.”

The powerhouse Americans got to a nervous Plourde her for three runs on four hits and a walk in two innings in her debut, but she bounced back with 2.2 innings of hitless relief against Japan, the 2012 world champions, and then beat Australia 2-0, starting and throwing 4.2 scoreless innings while giving up just three hits.

Plourde’s biggest strengths are the spin and movement she can put on the ball.

“She throws in the high 60s, rise ball, changeup and we’re developing a drop ball with her,” says Canadian coach Dave Paetkau. “She’s definitely more of an overpowering type pitcher and a real complement to Jenna.

“And, a great kid, smiling all the time. She’s been doing awesome.”

Plourde says playing internationally – she’ll head to Puerto Rico in August with the Canadian squad for the Pan Am qualifier – has been exciting.

“And these girls are awesome, which makes the experience even better. The coaches are fantastic, they have so much information and knowledge. I just love it.”

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